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Book Review – Doctor Who: Spore

Title: Spore

Series: Doctor Who Novelette Collection

Author: Alex Scarrow

Characters: Eighth Doctor

Date Reviewed on GoodReads: 07/03/2016

Doctor Who – Spore is the eighth book in the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary 12 Books 12 Doctors collection and features the Eighth Doctor as played by Paul McGann. The Doctor has no companion in this story. The Doctor lands in Nevada in the dessert and immediately runs into a military investigative team. They are all in protective gear, but Major Platt jumps to the conclusion that The Doctor is from the CDC in Atlanta, this bit of mistaken identity doesn’t actually last long though and the Doctor ends up introducing himself as being from UNIT – which gives him the run of the operation.

The Doctor goes to the nearby town of Ft. Casey, where everyone is dead and only a black goo remains – of all organic matter (plants, people, even animals). The Doctor recognizes the signs – it’s an ancient spore which once terrified Gallifrey, killing thousands of Gallifreyans. In the town, the Doctor meets Cap’t. Evelyn Chan, the soul survivor of Major Platt’s original team. The Doctor explains what the Spore is – but far from a simple organic virus or biological entity, it’s designed. Whether it was a weapon or a form of terraforming is unknown. However, the surprising thing is that after the first stage of gathering organic material, and the second stage of making organic constructs for defense, it begins the third stage – constructing a brain – this brain will ask The Question. If the Question is answered correctly, the entity will self-destruct, leaving the intelligent species alone. But if the species answers incorrectly – the entire planet will succumb to biological destruction. The Doctor enters into conversation with the entity and gambles.

This was a good short story. The idea of an intelligent virus or entity was unusual. And the story, though at first sounding like The Andromeda Strain actually ends in a much better way and is more intelligent.